[Spoilers] Mismanaged empire is best empire

[AdrienIer]

Quick pic I took when I paused the game.




I didn't update the signs. Gladstone has a second LB (probably from the likely city 2E3N of it) and Boak called me on the two mistakes I made, ie putting defenseless units near cities I don't threaten. If I had killed the two workers I had captured this would have been useful, but all he has to do is build a road on the sliver hill 2E of D Parade next turn and his pikes will be back in the city before my cats can do anything.

My advance will be slowed down by a lot now. Longport Dock will be taken in 2t unless something goes terribly wrong but after that my only option is to move slowly through his cities with my 1-mover stack, as my knight stack isn't big enough (nor is it well positioned to storm a city).

[AdrienIer]

I'm facing a difficult situation. First the war zone, which hasn't changed much since last turn.




I couldn't take a city this turn, and may not be able to take one next turn. The turn after that Longsport Dock and Dimsdale Parade should fall.
I found a strangely placed Gavagai stack close to my border, reasonably close to Boak's border too but it should be inside Boak's territory now that Boak's army is dead (as I gather from his power graph). I don't want to draw conclusions from incomplete data but I don't understand why it's not further east. Barteq is also assembling a huge army, I'm seeing knights run around his territory now, and both their power graphs are enormous.




These guys scare me. I need the rest of my army to be ready to go west soon in case of emergency. So after I take Dimsdale Parade and Longport Dock I'll wrap up the eastern shore cities and then make peace. That would still be a successful military campaign, with a gain of 10 cities.

Of course this could change if Gav sends his troops towards Boak or if Barteq attacks someone else.

[AdrienIer]

Well this game was fun while it lasted.




In the east I have to fall back. I'll propose peace to Boak next turn (this turn was just to pause so I felt like I shouldn't do anything ingame). I can't leave many units behind, the rest has to go west and try to stop Ichabod




I was trying to keep up in infrastructure but from next turn onwards it's going to be only units. Knights and pikes. And trying to delay dying for as long as possible. Of course now Barteq and Gavagai will join in to participate, perhaps Dtay too...

[AdrienIer]

Random thoughts.

Gav's stack has disappeared. I can't find Barteq's stack but there are 2 tiles I don't see where it might be so no rejoicing here.

There will be no t150 update, I'm not in the mood. Blame Ichabod.

I think I get to blame the map for this situation (in addition to my lack of skills). Most players had 2 or 3 neighbors at the start, some had 4, I had 5. That made attacking someone+defending all fronts impossible. Someone was bound to attack at some point. Perhaps I was compensated with slightly better terrain, IDK. Either way I was lucky to survive this long with this many neighbors.

My only shot at being relevant in this game was to eat Boak with Gav and HAK's help, keep good relations with them and send most of my troops NW in case one of my other neighbors attacked.

This time I won't be able to recover, like when AT attacked all those turns ago. You don't survive when attacked by 40 well promoted knights. Especially when your army is away (and when it wouldn't have been strong enough anyway).

This is the demos I'd have had this turn if things hadn't gone terribly wrong. I'm proud of them so I'll just post them here for no reason. Of course I'm back to full gold slider, I'll need to upgrade some outdated guys.




Any questions ?

[Mardoc]

There will be no t150 update, I'm not in the mood. Blame Ichabod.

I think I get to blame the map for this situation (in addition to my lack of skills).Most players had 2 or 3 neighbors at the start, some had 4, I had 5. That made attacking someone+defending all fronts impossible. Someone was bound to attack at some point. Perhaps I was compensated with slightly better terrain, IDK. Either way I was lucky to survive this long with this many neighbors.

I think if your neighbor draw was slightly different, you could have managed. In particular, if Ichabod hadn't been able to finish his earlier war already, or Krill got substituted earlier. It seems to me that if you had 10-20 more turns, you could have finished your war with boak and rebuilt enough army to deter Ichabod.

Well, there's a (selfish) silver lining...you'll have more time to spend on PB32 .

[AdrienIer]

I think I get to blame the map for this situation (in addition to my lack of skills).Most players had 2 or 3 neighbors at the start, some had 4, I had 5. That made attacking someone+defending all fronts impossible. Someone was bound to attack at some point. Perhaps I was compensated with slightly better terrain, IDK. Either way I was lucky to survive this long with this many neighbors.

I think if your neighbor draw was slightly different, you could have managed. In particular, if Ichabod hadn't been able to finish his earlier war already, or Krill got substituted earlier. It seems to me that if you had 10-20 more turns, you could have finished your war with boak and rebuilt enough army to deter Ichabod.

Well, there's a (selfish) silver lining...you'll have more time to spend on PB32 .

I'm not sure. In a way it had to go like this. The weaker/less aggressive neighbors got eaten (Molach, Tsargon, The Wannabe even if he didn't neighbor me) so only the big scary ones remain. I was bordering Ichabod Dtay Gavagai and Krill/Boak not because I was unlucky (it could have been Plako Serdoa REM and Taotao if I had been on the other continent) but because they were good enough to kill the less threatening ones (in addition to my central position on the continent).

I would have used the next 10t to finish building my necessary infrastructure and then build knights non stop. In the end Molach forcing me to take a 10t peace treaty before he died was the death of me, because I couldn't get a better border with Ichabod, one that would be further away from my core. He'd have had to go through 3 or 4 useless cities before arriving near Kearney, where I'd have had enough time to mount a not-completely-ridiculous defense. But here, starting so close to my core, if he doesn't take Kearney in the next 5t I'll be surprised.

[AdrienIer]

Now Gavagai takes a city from boak ? A shame, it's a few turns too late for me to use that

[AdrienIer]

Hmmm, Serdoa looking for a replacement ? I'd better die quickly so no one takes the offer before I can

[AdrienIer]

Barteq is not being sneaky. That's 23 knights, 12 WEs and 11 cats very close to our border.




Meanwhile, Ichabod is running around with a stack of 36 knights.




Note that in total I only have 13 knights. I'm screwed...

[Mardoc]

Silver lining...silver lining...

At least this one isn't going to drag out? Distance between knowing you've lost and actually stopping playing turns won't be nearly as long as our HRE game.